Interesting as most of what I've read suggested that Christianity rejected any other religions right from the start. In fact much of the problem between it and the middle Roman empire was because as the latter became more autocratic you started getting emperors declaring themselves divine and hence insisting that they be worshiped as gods and the Christians refused to do this. Also in at least some cases the more fanatical Christians sought martyrdom by deliberately attacking pagan temples and disrupting their services because they thought it would give them a higher status in heaven.
Fully agree that all religions can be brutal and intolerant, although that seems to have been less prevalent in earlier times. However I think the theological intolerance of the monotheistic faiths make them more likely to do this and to be more extreme in it.
I think you are inaccurate on the point about Catholism in Japan, unless that's a typo? It did have influence in the Nagasaki area especially due to that being the contact point with Portuguese traders and gained a lot of influence but this lead to its brutal oppression in the early years of the Shogunate. There was secret worship in the region until it became open again after 1945 but it was brutally repressed. Actually the Dutch traders helped in the suppression of open Catholicism in Japan.
There were numerous problems with the latter empire and finance and growing autocracy were both serious problems but Christianity by increasing intolerance definitely had a role, both then and in the later fall of much of Byzantine Levant and Egypt to 1st the Persians and then the Arabs. Also much of the conflict with the assorted German tribes fleeing the Huns, most noticeably the Goths as the latter had been converted by Arian and hence were seen as heretics by the Roman ruling elite. Also since Christian religious institutions gained exemption from taxation after it gained power and those expanded dramatically it also hindered the empire financially.
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@MagicRooster
Interesting as most of what I've read suggested that Christianity rejected any other religions right from the start. In fact much of the problem between it and the middle Roman empire was because as the latter became more autocratic you started getting emperors declaring themselves divine and hence insisting that they be worshiped as gods and the Christians refused to do this. Also in at least some cases the more fanatical Christians sought martyrdom by deliberately attacking pagan temples and disrupting their services because they thought it would give them a higher status in heaven.
Fully agree that all religions can be brutal and intolerant, although that seems to have been less prevalent in earlier times. However I think the theological intolerance of the monotheistic faiths make them more likely to do this and to be more extreme in it.
I think you are inaccurate on the point about Catholism in Japan, unless that's a typo? It did have influence in the Nagasaki area especially due to that being the contact point with Portuguese traders and gained a lot of influence but this lead to its brutal oppression in the early years of the Shogunate. There was secret worship in the region until it became open again after 1945 but it was brutally repressed. Actually the Dutch traders helped in the suppression of open Catholicism in Japan.
There were numerous problems with the latter empire and finance and growing autocracy were both serious problems but Christianity by increasing intolerance definitely had a role, both then and in the later fall of much of Byzantine Levant and Egypt to 1st the Persians and then the Arabs. Also much of the conflict with the assorted German tribes fleeing the Huns, most noticeably the Goths as the latter had been converted by Arian and hence were seen as heretics by the Roman ruling elite. Also since Christian religious institutions gained exemption from taxation after it gained power and those expanded dramatically it also hindered the empire financially.